THE TRIAL OF DR. SPOCK

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REPORTER AT LARGE about the trial of Dr. Benjamin Spock & four other defendants charged with conspiracy to counsel, aid and abet draftable men to avoid military services, and hinder & interfere with the administration of the Military Selective Service Act of '67. The sitting judge, Francis J. W. Ford stipulated that Dr. Coffin was to be addressed in court as Defendant Coffin. Tells about the trial. Dr. Coffin not only had served in the 2nd World War but had also been a CIA agent for 3 years during the Korean war. An erudite man (he could have testified in French, German, or Russian). He had campaigned more persistantly than any of the other defendants. He was a Freedom Rider in Alabana several years earlier, when he and others had violated local law segregating bus passengers; a test case followed and the Supreme Court had overthrown the stature. Dr. Coffin said of the Boston trial: "I wanted a trial of stature, to test the legality of the war and the Constitutionality of the Selective Service Act. Dr. Coffin and four other defendants were sentenced to two years in prison and fince $5000. The defendants were released on their own recognizance pending an appeal.